Author: Padili Mikomangwa

East Africa is facing a serious threat posed by billions of locusts–the most dangerous migratory pests, threatening food security in the region which is also enduring, through climate change, stress impacting food security in Somalia, South Sudan, Kenya and some parts of Tanzania.

According to the Food Security and Nutrition Working Group (FSNWG), East Africa is already being threatened with 19 million people facing acute food insecurity.

In January swarms of locusts made their presence known when they took an Ethiopian plane off course, and invaded Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and took Uganda and Tanzania in February.

This could be the worst case of locust outbreak over the decades. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), there is an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods in the region, as a new swarm is forming and expected in March and April.

UN agronomy experts warned that the wave of locusts …

South African rand has taken a steady stance on Monday, after China intervened to soothe the virus tension and combat the outbreak economic backlash, via its rate cut approach, according to information from Reuters.

Reuters reported that, China’s central bank cut the interest rate on its medium-term lending on Monday as policymakers sought to cushion the drag on business from the outbreak that has immensely disrupted activity.

As of 0245 EAT, the rand was standing at 0.55 per cent firmer at 14.8966, adding to gains from Friday’s session spurred by largely positive reception of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation speech promising faster economic reformer.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported the rand slipped to 14.6570 per dollar on Monday 28 January, its weakest since Dec. 12, with the selloff largely driven by investors dumping emerging-market assets.

Further, the rand and other emerging market currencies had weakened amid investor fears …

MTN, South African multinational mobile telecommunications company is expecting to gather full-year headline profit up to 50 per cent, which is still a slow-down from the previous years attributed by interest on regulatory fines in Nigeria, Reuters reported.

According to Reuters, MTN, which is due to report 2019 results on March 11, 2020, said headline earnings per share (HEPS) would likely be within a range of 438 cents to 506 cents on the IFRS 16 accounting basis adopted at the start of the year.

That compares to 337 cents in the previous year. On a like-for-like IAS 17 accounting basis, MTN expects to report growth in HEPS – a key profit measure in South Africa that strips out one-off items – of between 55 per cent and 75 per cent.

However, that is still slower than the 85 per cent jump the company reported in 2018. It attributed the …

South African Airways (SAA), one of Africa’s iconic airline, which currently operating under-loss, could resort in cutting-routes to save the state-owned flag carrier, SAA rescue team revealed.

Several news outlets, including Bloomberg, noted that SAA administrators have defended their decision to cut-routes, even after several objections from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the government and labor unions.

According to a report by Reuters, under South African company law, the business rescue team is entitled to take decisions that are deemed necessary to turn a distressed company around, independently of government. In theory, it could ignore the government’s objections.

Bloomberg reported that South African Airways will halt service to nine international cities, including Hong Kong and Sao Paulo, and cease all local services except those between Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The move is “in the best interests of SAA,” joint administrators Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana said in an emailed statement …

Canada, the world’s second largest country and the fastest economy among G7 has set aside $10 million for developing African women, and slated potential investment agreement with Ethiopia.

The $10-million contribution is to the African Union Commission for gender equality and women empowerment.

The Canadian Prime Minister (with his first visit to Ethiopia) spent the first full day of a three-day trip to Addis Ababa meeting with some of the African Union’s heaviest performers in a series of one-on-one on the sidelines of the union’s 33rd sessional meeting in Addis Ababa.

READ:Ethiopian Airline’s CEO reveals new airport underway

Canada and Ethiopia

According to the Canadian media, Global news, Trudeau said Canada and Ethiopia are about to start negotiating a Foreign Investment Protection Agreement.

Also, the Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng, who is in Africa with a trade delegation of Canadian companies, wouldn’t say how long those negotiations could take …

Ahead of this week’s African Union meeting (Feb 9-10), more than 25 organisations, networks and community resistance groups from Africa and around the world have called on African governments to prevent the proliferation of coal, oil and gas in Africa and to ensure efforts to address fossil fuels match those which have helped reduce the danger from nuclear weapons, Power Shift statement reveals.

According to the statement, the communique signed by the group criticized the deliberate proliferation of coal, oil, and gas in Africa, contrary to scientific evidence and highlighted the contradiction between planned fossil fuel expansion and globally agreed climate targets.

They also condemned the way some African governments were avoiding scrutiny from civil society groups and even violently targeting environmental activists and human rights defenders in some places.

Representatives from the different NGO groups who attended an Africa Energy Leaders Summit on Climate Change, Energy, and Energy Finance …

The European Union (EU) is set to provide over $57 million as development aid to Tanzania, marking a return of EU in the Tanzanian development landscape after the partner’s relations were married two years ago over human rights and rule of law concerns.

According to The Citizen, the EU Head of Delegation to Tanzania Manfredo Fanti revealed the release of the funds yesterday at State House, in Dar es Salaam, during a meeting with the Tanzanian President John Magufuli.

It was the first major funding announcement by the EU bloc which in December 2018 withheld 96 million in annual financial support to Tanzania amid a diplomatic fallout.

The EU is Tanzania’s biggest development partner, receiving over $100 million every year.

Also, the EU Deputy Head of Delegation, Emilio Rossetti revealed to The Citizen that the planned disbursements were assessed and finally approved in December 2019 after technical discussions.

“The implementation …

Africa is now more connected, technologically savvy, and focused on enhancing its economic systems compared to 30 years ago. The narrative has changed, from civil unrest and extreme donor-dependent economies, to those with record-high tax collections such as in Tanzania, and information communications and technology (ICT) transformation ones such as Rwanda, Kenya and South Africa. The African GDP has grown to over $2 trillion from about $587 billion in 2000.

Despite the youngest continent’s nations being driven by agriculture—which has also sustained major development, in terms of technology input, funding and research and development, still the continent’s manufacturing industry holds vital potential to stimulate the economy and offer decent livelihood to its vast young human capital, who number over 226 million and who are expected to increase by 42 per cent by 2030 according to the United Nations (UN).

According to Brookings—an American think tank, the future of the manufacturing …

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has taken a key interest in Uganda’s economy, whereas the East African economy is likely to grow by 6 per cent in the financial year 2019/2020 (July-June), which is slump from the previous projection of 6.3 per cent.

According to Reuters, the IMF noted the delays to be attributed by the delays in the public investment necessary for kicking off oil production.

On May 9, 2019, IMF statement noted that Uganda’s economy continued on its robust recovery with projected growth of 6.3 per cent in the fiscal 2018/2019, unequivocally highlighting the timely implementation of public infrastructure and oil-related projects would support growth in the medium term.

The Washington DC-based fund said in a statement published on Wednesday that, “Downside risks have increased linked to uncertainty related to oil production,”.

Also, the statement noted that “the electoral period and the complex external context” also weighed on …

The Moroccan planning agency revealed on Wednesday that, the country’s unemployment rate slipped to 9.2 per cent in 2019 from 9.5 per cent in 2018. This was attributed by the offset labor gains in town and cities, after heavy job losses within the rural areas, Reuters revealed.

Morocco which is now run under a new coalition-government, its economy was spotted by World Bank (in October 2019) to be slowing down below its potential constrained by a volatile, rain-fed, agricultural sector and slow growth in the tertiary sector.

According to World Bank, real GDP slowed to 2.7 per cent in 2019, while non-agricultural growth improved by 3.4 per cent (compared to 3 per cent in 2018), driven by the better performance of phosphates, chemicals, and textiles.

READ U.S.-Africa Business Summit 2020 to be hosted in Morocco

In addition, the government is currently working to develop a new model of economic development …